Thomas Frank - Head Coach

[DubaiSpur]

Just saw Thomas Frank interview with fans where the question was what he demands from players:
1. good attitude
2. following the playbook
3. players able to express themselves (he also emphasized about being daring in another question)

I believe (3) is going to allow us to see some players get back to their natural best.

3 is also what Ange said, and more importantly, lived. It's not an easy thing to put into place, in practice.

It's easy to say you want players to express themselves, but the proof is in the pudding. If they deviate from your tactical plans to ping a long ball to the other flank with a low chance of success, or if they dribble all the way down to the touchline ignoring players in better positions, or take a low-percentage shot, or get dispossessed doing a risky dribble - do you let them do it, or do you chew them out for it?

Ange genuinely meant it when he said he'd take the flak for players trying things that don't work out. Not saying Frank will or won't, but just saying - it's easy to say, harder to practice.

 

[Mikey10]

Tottenham: Thomas Frank brings 'glass half-full' philosophy to Spurs before new season

BBC senior football correspondent Sami Mokbel looks at how Tottenham are shaping up for the season under new manager Thomas Frank.

www.bbc.co.uk

Interesting stats on Maddison v Eze at the end of this article.

 

[metalgear]

Has there been a change with your kicking now that Thomas Frank is in charge?

Vicario: Yeah something has changed, I really need to look to read the situation that presents in front of me, sometimes it is time to build from the back and play, sometimes it’s to go long. It’s kind of a different approach to what I was used to over the last two seasons but the important thing is it’s useful for the team and to achieve a good result if I can impact in this way.

 

[metalgear]

3 is also what Ange said, and more importantly, lived. It's not an easy thing to put into place, in practice.

It's easy to say you want players to express themselves, but the proof is in the pudding. If they deviate from your tactical plans to ping a long ball to the other flank with a low chance of success, or if they dribble all the way down to the touchline ignoring players in better positions, or take a low-percentage shot, or get dispossessed doing a risky dribble - do you let them do it, or do you chew them out for it?

Ange genuinely meant it when he said he'd take the flak for players trying things that don't work out. Not saying Frank will or won't, but just saying - it's easy to say, harder to practice.

Maybe Ange did but it was within a very narrow band. Fir a long time , we didn't have shots on goal, Sin could only stay wide and wait for an overlap and we could only play out from the back.

 

[Grays_1890]

3 is also what Ange said, and more importantly, lived. It's not an easy thing to put into place, in practice.

It's easy to say you want players to express themselves, but the proof is in the pudding. If they deviate from your tactical plans to ping a long ball to the other flank with a low chance of success, or if they dribble all the way down to the touchline ignoring players in better positions, or take a low-percentage shot, or get dispossessed doing a risky dribble - do you let them do it, or do you chew them out for it?

Ange genuinely meant it when he said he'd take the flak for players trying things that don't work out. Not saying Frank will or won't, but just saying - it's easy to say, harder to practice.

I think its much easier to achieve it if you are structurally strong and there are triggers to that freedom, like fighting for the right to play and being in advanced areas. With Ange that right to play seemed to be all over the pitch and was great when it worked for a period, then looked like chaos.

I like Franks idea that the better the players, the better chance you have to be robust but also play, we can argue how strong this team is but its better than Brentford IMO so in that respect he should have a solid season, if we make additions then even better.

I think we have a good guy here, of course the proof will be in the pudding I agree, but I am quietly happy.

I don't expect us to win tonight either, there will be no judgement there

 

[braineclipse]

3 is also what Ange said, and more importantly, lived. It's not an easy thing to put into place, in practice.

It's easy to say you want players to express themselves, but the proof is in the pudding. If they deviate from your tactical plans to ping a long ball to the other flank with a low chance of success, or if they dribble all the way down to the touchline ignoring players in better positions, or take a low-percentage shot, or get dispossessed doing a risky dribble - do you let them do it, or do you chew them out for it?

Ange genuinely meant it when he said he'd take the flak for players trying things that don't work out. Not saying Frank will or won't, but just saying - it's easy to say, harder to practice.

Absolutely. Same with being brave on the ball deep. Same with wanting to play attacking/ambitious football.

I'm absolutely fine with Frank being flexible tactically, definitely a thing that can work well. But I also hope he shows tactical principles he wants to stick by even when things get tough beyond the obvious of hard work, defending as a unit and stuff like that.

 

[Muttley]

Has there been a change with your kicking now that Thomas Frank is in charge?

Vicario: Yeah something has changed, I really need to look to read the situation that presents in front of me, sometimes it is time to build from the back and play, sometimes it’s to go long. It’s kind of a different approach to what I was used to over the last two seasons but the important thing is it’s useful for the team and to achieve a good result if I can impact in this way.

The interesting part of this is what Frank would have told the other players what to do. Ange would have been telling a lot of his players to get into positions where they can receive the ball from Vic on the ground. They would have been coming backwards towards their own 18 yard box to make the passes easier. After that the players needed to move again to get into positions to receive the ball from the first receiver. Looks absolutely great when it works to be fair. The problem is, like most things Ange, it becomes a predictable pattern for the opposition to counter. They just push up knowing that the ball won't be played in the air. They work on dispossessing us up the field and we saw loads of examples of turnover in dangerous areas.

Frank's approach is different. He's keeping the opposition guessing which one it will be. That makes us harder to play against.

 

[Bishop]

3 is also what Ange said, and more importantly, lived. It's not an easy thing to put into place, in practice.

It's easy to say you want players to express themselves, but the proof is in the pudding. If they deviate from your tactical plans to ping a long ball to the other flank with a low chance of success, or if they dribble all the way down to the touchline ignoring players in better positions, or take a low-percentage shot, or get dispossessed doing a risky dribble - do you let them do it, or do you chew them out for it?

Ange genuinely meant it when he said he'd take the flak for players trying things that don't work out. Not saying Frank will or won't, but just saying - it's easy to say, harder to practice.

Ange also said that whilst his system might look like one of freedom, it was all tightly orchestrated. If it worked it would look really free form but in reality it wasn't. So Ange gave them some freedoms but it was under a tight set of parameters. Things that looked risky liek saying incessantly playing short at the back wasn't because a player was free to do whatever they wanted and that was the choice they had made, that action happened because they were drilled to play that way in that situation.

I tend to believe with Frank that when it comes to the attacking principles, he actually does mean freedom. Its a bit like the Mourhino paradox. We all know him (even before his time at Spurs) as a fairly defensively orientated and rigid coach, but the truth is in regard to his attackers he gave them total freedom to play once in the attacking phase. Defensive shape and game principles were drilled, but he doesn't drill attacking patterns, instead he very much leaves it up to the individuals. Its partly why he succeeds when he has absolutely world class attackers and has struggled anywhere he doesn't have that. Frank is more in this mould, get the shape right, don't leave yourself foolishly open but then attack play in a way that make sense to you and your attributes.